In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required to handle and/or process the items or goods to be purchased by a customer. To this end, there have been a number of retail checkout terminal concepts developed which attempt to reduce the amount of time required by a checkout clerk to checkout a customer's items for purchase. For example, assisted retail terminals (i.e. checkout terminals which are operated by a checkout clerk) have heretofore been designed which include integrated scanner and product scale assemblies which eliminate the need for the checkout clerk to carry produce or the like to a centralized weighing station in order to obtain the weight of the produce during a checkout procedure.
Moreover, there have been a number of self-service checkout terminal concepts developed which attempt to substantially eliminate the need for the checkout clerk. A self-service checkout terminal is a system which is operated by a customer without the aid of the checkout clerk. What is meant herein by the term "customer" is a person who enters the retailer's store, selects his or her items for purchase from the shopping area of the store, checks out his or items for purchase by use of a self-service checkout terminal, tenders payment for his or her items for purchase, and then exits the store subsequent to tendering payment. Hence, as used herein, a customer is distinguished from a checkout clerk or other employee of the retailer in that a customer enters the retailer's store for the sole purpose of purchasing items from the store.
Hence, it should be appreciated that in regard to operation of a self-service checkout terminal, the customer scans individual items for purchase across a scanner and then places the scanned items into a grocery bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchases either at the self-service checkout terminal if so equipped, or at a central payment area which is staffed by a store employee. Thus, a self-service checkout terminal permits a customer to select, itemize, and in some cases pay for his or her purchases without the assistance of the retailer's personnel.
However, during operation of a retail checkout terminal it is occasionally necessary for retail personnel, such as a customer service manager, to intervene in the checkout transaction. For example, an item may be scanned or otherwise entered into the retail checkout terminal which does not have a record associated therewith stored in a master product database. In particular, if the product identification code associated with an item is scanned or otherwise read from the item, the processing unit associated with the retail checkout terminal communicates with a network storage device in order to retrieve product information associated with the scanned item (e.g. description and price) from the master product database maintained on the network storage device. However, if product information associated with the scanned item is not included in the master product database, an error message is generated and intervention by store personnel is requested.
In the case of an assisted checkout terminal, such an error message may be as simple as displaying an error message on a display monitor which instructs the checkout clerk to manually enter the required product information (e.g. the price) associated with the item. For example, if the checkout clerk scans a magazine for entry into the retail terminal, the processing unit associated with the terminal attempts to retrieve product information associated with the magazine from the master product database. However, if product information associated with the magazine is not included in the master product database, an error message is displayed on the display monitor associated with the terminal which instructs the checkout clerk to manually enter the price of the magazine into the terminal. It should be appreciated that if the items for purchase of a subsequent customer also include the same magazine, the checkout clerk will again be required to manually enter the price of the magazine in the manner previously described.
Such intervention by store personnel is also occasionally necessary in the case of operation of a self-service checkout terminal. For example, if the customer scans an item for purchase that does not have product information associated therewith stored in the master product database, it is necessary for retail personnel, such as a customer service manager, to intervene in the customer's checkout transaction. This is true since the customer may have little or no training in the operation of the self-service checkout terminal and therefore may not be able to perform manual entry of the price of the item. Moreover, it is also known that some customers may have improper intentions when using a self-service checkout terminal. Such improper intentions may include the propensity to manually enter a dollar amount which is less than the actual price of the item.
Hence, in the case of a self-service checkout terminal, it has heretofore been necessary for the customer service manager to be paged or otherwise summoned to manually enter the price of any items included in the customer's items for purchase which do not have product information associated therewith included in the master product database. For example, if the customer scans a magazine for entry into the self-service checkout terminal, the processing unit associated with the terminal attempts to retrieve product information associated with the magazine from the master product database. However, if product information associated with the magazine is not included in the master product database, store personnel such as the customer service manager is paged or otherwise summoned to the self-service checkout terminal. Once the customer service manager arrives at the self-service checkout terminal, he or she manually enters the price of the magazine into the terminal. It should be appreciated that if the items for purchase of a subsequent customer also include the same magazine, the customer service manager will again be required to approach the self-service checkout terminal and thereafter manually enter the price of the magazine in the manner previously described.
Such intervention has a number of drawbacks associated therewith. For example, the retailer must always have a number of employees (e.g. a number of customer service managers) present during operation of the retail checkout terminals in order to intervene into checkout transactions (as needed) thereby increasing costs associated with the retailer's operation. Moreover, the requirement of such intervention may be inconvenient to the retailer's customers. Moreover, such a requirement reduces the throughput associated with the retail checkout terminals. In particular, if the customer is otherwise finished with his or her checkout transaction, but must wait for the customer service manager to approach the retail checkout terminal, the customer is undesirably forced to remain at the terminal thereby reducing the number of customers which may checkout their items for purchase via use of the terminal over a given period of time (i.e. reduces throughput though the terminal).
What is needed therefore is a retail checkout terminal which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is particularly needed is a retail checkout terminal which reduces the number of occasions in which retail personnel must intervene in a customer's checkout transaction. What is also needed is a retail checkout terminal which reduces the number of occasions in which product information associated with an item must be manually entered.